In the construction of multiple-story buildings, both commercial and residential, considerable risk is present to craftsmen and others at the building site during the main stages of construction. Specifically, there is considerable risk that workers may accidentally fall from an upper story and sustain a serious injury or even death. These concerns are especially high until exterior walls are installed around elevated floors and until a permanent bannister or railing system is installed on balconies, staircases and the like.
Regulations of the Occupational, Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), require the use of safety protection at locations where a risk is present that persons may fall. To satisfy OSHA regulations, safety protection in the form of temporary guard rails must exceed certain minimum lateral load requirements without experiencing permanent deformation or component failure.
Numerous temporary guard rails have been designed to address these safety concerns. Over time, designs for guard rails have improved structurally. However, some building designs have features which require railings to angled in different directions and/or orientations. Especially for these situations, installation of guard rails has proven cumbersome and requires additional time because of the changes in vertical height and horizontal direction.
Typical of the prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,521 issued to Weinert. Weinert discloses a portable safety railing for use in a horizontal plane which can be connected lengthwise in series or connected at right angles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,074 issued to Purvis et al., discloses a guard rail system which incorporates a plurality of upright stanchions. Attached to the stanchions are support collars which support side rails and also permit the rails to be rotated 360 degrees about the stanchion. Once the proper angle is obtained, the support collars are fixed in position by use of wing nuts. The wing nuts are also used along with an incline adapter bracket to angle side rails vertically. Finally, Purvis et al., teaches the use of adjusting side rail length by the use of a telescopic means. One concern of this system is that failure of a wing nut can compromise the integrity of the guard rail.